Editing Ranjit Singh (section)

==Administration==
===Governance===
[[File:Maharaja Ranjit Singh with two British officers.jpg|thumb|Maharaja Ranjit Singh with two British officers, artist unknown, 19th century, gouache and gold on paper]]
[[File:Darbar (royal court) of Maharaja Ranjit Singh being held outdoors using a large tent.jpg|thumb|[[Durbar (court)|Darbar]] (royal court) of Maharaja Ranjit Singh behind held outdoors using a large tent]]
Ranjit Singh allowed men from different religions and races to serve in his army and his government in various positions of authority.<ref>Kartar Singh Duggal (2001). Maharaja Ranjit Singh: The Last to Lay Arms. Abhinav Publications. pp. 125–126. {{ISBN|978-81-7017-410-3}}.</ref> His army included a few Europeans, such as the Frenchman [[Jean-François Allard]], and Italian Jewish [[Jean-Baptiste Ventura]] though Singh maintained a policy of refraining from recruiting Britons into his service, aware of British designs on the Indian subcontinent.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kuiper|first1=Kathleen|title=The culture of India|date=2010|publisher=Rosen Publishing Group|isbn=978-1615301492|page=136}}</ref> Despite his recruitment policies, he did maintain a diplomatic channel with the British; in 1828, he sent gifts to [[George IV of the United Kingdom|George IV]] and in 1831, he sent a mission to Simla to confer with the British Governor General, [[Lord William Bentinck|William Bentinck]], which was followed by the [[Ropar Meeting]];<ref name=prinsep152>{{cite book|author=Henry Thoby Prinsep|title=Origin of the Sikh Power in the Punjab, and Political Life of Muha-Raja Runjeet Singh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E8bz-gg6mD4C |year=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-02872-1 |pages=152–161 }}</ref> while in 1838, he cooperated with them in removing the hostile Islamic Emir in Afghanistan.<ref name=roylorge100/>

===Religious policies===
[[File:Benares- The Golden Temple, India, ca. 1915 (IMP-CSCNWW33-OS14-66).jpg|thumb|In 1835, Maharaja Ranjit Singh donated 1 tonne of gold for plating the [[Kashi Vishwanath Temple]]'s dome.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.217371 |title=The Sacred City of the Hindus: An Account of Benares in Ancient and Modern Times |author=Matthew Atmore Sherring |publisher=Trübner & co. |year=1868 |page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.217371/page/n93 51] |author-link=Matthew Atmore Sherring }}</ref><ref name="Madhuri_2007">{{cite book |author=Madhuri Desai |title=Resurrecting Banaras: Urban Space, Architecture and Religious Boundaries |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KdD3MYnYey8C&pg=PA30 |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-549-52839-5 }}</ref>]]

As consistent with many Punjabis of that time, Ranjit Singh was a secular king<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ranjit Singh: A Secular Sikh Sovereign|last=Duggal|first=K.S.|date=1993|publisher=Abhinav Pubns|isbn=8170172446}}</ref> and followed the Sikh path.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The evolution of the Sikh community: five essays|last=McLeod|first=W. H.|date=1976|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=0-19-826529-8|location=Oxford|oclc=2140005}}</ref> His policies were based on respect for all communities, Hindu, Sikh and Muslim.<ref name= Singh2011 /> A devoted Sikh, Ranjit Singh restored and built historic Sikh [[Gurdwara]]s – most famously, the [[Harmandir Sahib]], and used to celebrate his victories by offering thanks at the Harmandir. He also joined the Hindus in their temples out of respect for their sentiments.<ref name= Singh2011 /> The veneration of cows was promoted and cow slaughter was punishable by death under his rule.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030308/windows/above.htm|title=The Tribune – Windows – This Above All|website=www.tribuneindia.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Polk|first=William Roe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ozFDDwAAQBAJ&dq=sikh+empire+anti+islamic&pg=PA263|title=Crusade and Jihad: The Thousand-year War Between the Muslim World and the Global North|date= 2018 |publisher=Yale University Press|pages=263|isbn=978-0300222906 |author-link=William R. Polk}}</ref> He ordered his soldiers to neither loot nor molest civilians.<ref>{{cite book|author=Khushwant Singh|title=Ranjit Singh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D068dKeyGW4C  |year=2008|publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-306543-2 |pages= 25–26 }}</ref>

He built several gurdwaras, Hindu temples and even mosques, and one in particular was Mai Moran Masjid, built at the behest of his beloved Muslim wife, [[Moran Sarkar]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Hari Ram Gupta |title=History of the Sikhs |publisher=Munshirm Manoharlal Pub Pvt Ltd |date=2001 |isbn=8121505402}}</ref> The Sikhs led by Singh never razed places of worship to the ground belonging to the enemy.<ref>{{cite book |author=K.S. Duggal |title=Ranjit Singh: A Secular Sikh Sovereign |publisher=Abhinav Publications |date=1989 |isbn=81-7017-244-6}}</ref> However, he did convert Muslim mosques into other uses. For example, Ranjit Singh's army desecrated Lahore's [[Badshahi Mosque]] and converted it into an ammunition store,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AxnjJp_kpFkC&pg=PA23|title=City of Sin and Splendour: Writings on Lahore|first=Bapsi|last=Sidhwa|year=2005|publisher=Penguin Books |access-date=7 January 2017|isbn=978-0143031666 |quote=In Lahore, just as he had grasped its historic citadel and put it to his own hardy use or desecrated the Badshahi Mosque and converted it into a functional ammuniation store...}}</ref> and horse stables.<ref name=amin95>{{cite book|last1=Amin|first1=Mohamed |last2= Willetts|first2= Duncan|last3= Farrow|first3= Brendan|title=Lahore|date=1988|publisher=Ferozsons|isbn=978-9690006943|page=95}}</ref> Lahore's [[Moti Masjid (Lahore Fort)|Moti Masjid]] (Pearl Mosque) was converted into "Moti Mandir" (Pearl Temple) by the Sikh army,<ref name=amin95/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Latif|first1=Syad Muhammad|title=Lahore: Its History, Architectural Remains and Antiquities|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.107067|year=1892|publisher=Printed at the New Imperial Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.107067/page/n175 125]}}</ref> and [[Sunehri Masjid, Lahore|Sonehri Mosque]] was converted into a Sikh [[Gurdwara]], but upon the request of Sufi Fakir (Satar Shah Bukhari), Ranjit Singh restored the latter to a mosque.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Latif|first1=Syad Muhammad|title=Lahore: Its History, Architectural Remains and Antiquities|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.107067|year=1892|publisher=Printed at the New Imperial Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.107067/page/n343 221]–223, 339}}</ref> Lahore's [[Mosque of Mariyam Zamani Begum|Begum Shahi Mosque]] was also used as a gunpowder factory, earning it the [[nickname]] ''Barudkhana Wali Masjid'', or "Gunpowder Mosque."<ref>{{cite journal|title=Maryam Zamani Mosque|journal=Journal of Central Asia|year=1996|volume=19|publisher=Centre for the Study of the Civilizations of Central Asia, Quaid-i-Azam University|page=97}}</ref>

Singh's sovereignty was accepted by Afghan and Punjabi Muslims, who fought under his banner against the Afghan forces of Nadir Shah and later Azim Khan. His court was ecumenical in composition: his prime minister, [[Dhian Singh]], was a Hindu ([[Dogras|Dogra]]); his foreign minister, [[Fakir Azizuddin]], was a Muslim; and his finance minister, Dina Nath, was also a Hindu ([[Brahmin]]). Artillery commanders such as Mian Ghausa were also Muslims. There were no forced conversions in his time. His wives Bibi Mohran, [[Gulbahar Begum|Gilbahar Begum]] retained their faith and so did his Hindu wives. He also employed and surrounded himself with astrologers and soothsayers in his court.<ref>{{cite book|last=Singh|first=Khushwant|title=A History of the Sikhs: 1469–1838|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MD9uAAAAMAAJ|access-date=1 April 2011|edition=2nd|date=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-567308-1|page=295}}</ref>

Ranjit Singh had also abolished the [[gurmata]] and provided significant patronage to the [[Udasi]] and [[Nirmala (sect)|Nirmala]] sect, leading to their prominence and control of Sikh religious affairs.{{refn|<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mandair |first=Arvind |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ftdcvmviy_8C&pg=PR35 |title=Teachings of the Sikh Gurus: Selections from the Sikh Scriptures |date= 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1136451089 |pages=xxxv (35)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Mann|first=Gurinder Singh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bTCFDfh7Qv4C&pg=PA150|title=Studying the Sikhs: Issues for North America|date= 1993 |publisher=State University of New York Press|page=150|isbn=978-0791414255 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Van Die |first=Marguerite |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GxZqGT-IrJ4C&pg=PA348 |title=Religion and Public Life in Canada: Historical and Comparative Perspectives |date= 2001 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0802082459 |page=348}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Mandair |first=Arvind-Pal S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dzeCy_zL0Q8C&pg=PA264 |title=Religion and the Specter of the West: Sikhism, India, Postcoloniality, and the Politics of Translation |date= 2009 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-51980-9 |page=264 |language=en |quote=As Khalsa Sikhs became more settled and as Ranjit Singh's rule became more autocratic, the Gurumata was effectively abolished, thereby ensuring that the doctrine of the Guru Panth would lose its efficacy. At the same time, however, Ranjit Singh continued to patronize Udasi and Nirmala ashrams. The single most important result of this was the more pronounced diffusion of Vedic and Puranic concepts into the existing Sikh interpretive frameworks}}</ref>}}
[[File:Painting of Maharaja Ranjit Singh at the Darbar Dahib, by August Schoefft, ca.1840's–1855 after a sketch made by Schoefft in Amritsar in 1841 (pre-varnish removal).jpg|center|thumb|800x800px|{{center|Maharaja Ranjit Singh listening to [[Guru Granth Sahib]] being recited near the [[Akal Takht]] and [[Golden Temple, Amritsar]], [[Punjab, India]].}}]]

===Khalsa Army===
{{For|the army commanders|List of generals of Ranjit Singh}} 
{{Main|Sikh Khalsa Army|Fauj-i-Ain|Fauj-i-Khas}}
{{multiple image
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| footer = Ranjit Singh's army included Europeans. Left: [[Jean-François Allard]], Right: [[Alexander Gardner (soldier)|Alexander Gardner]]
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The army under Ranjit Singh was not limited to the Sikh community. The soldiers and troop officers included Sikhs, but also included Hindus, Muslims and Europeans.<ref name=tejasingh56>{{cite book|author1=Teja Singh|author2=Sita Ram Kohli|title=Maharaja Ranjit Singh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YrG_aJTgnw0C |year=1986|publisher=Atlantic Publishers|pages=56, 67}}</ref> Hindu [[Brahmin]]s and people of all creeds and castes served his army,<ref>{{cite book|author=Khushwant Singh|title=Ranjit Singh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D068dKeyGW4C  |year=2008|publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-306543-2 |page= 128 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Kaushik Roy|title=War, Culture and Society in Early Modern South Asia, 1740–1849|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zp0FbTniNaYC&pg=PA147 |year=2011|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-79087-4 |pages=147 }}</ref> while the composition in his government also reflected a religious diversity.<ref name=tejasingh56/><ref name="Singh">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D068dKeyGW4C | title=Ranjit Singh: Maharaja of the Punjab | publisher=Penguin Books | author=Singh, Khushwant | year=2008 | location=New Delhi | isbn=978-0-143-06543-2}}</ref> His army included Polish, Russian, Spanish, Prussian and French officers.<ref name=kaushikroyp143/> In 1835, as his relationship with the British warmed up, he hired a British officer named Foulkes.<ref name=kaushikroyp143>{{cite book|author=Kaushik Roy|title=War, Culture and Society in Early Modern South Asia, 1740–1849|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zp0FbTniNaYC&pg=PA147 |year=2011|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-79087-4 |pages=143–144 }}</ref>

However, the Khalsa army of Ranjit Singh reflected the regional population, and as he grew his army, he dramatically increased the Rajputs and the Sikhs who became the predominant members of his army.<ref name=tejasingh65/> In the Doaba region his army was composed of the Jat Sikhs, in Jammu and northern Indian hills it was Hindu Rajputs, while relatively more Muslims served his army in the Jhelum river area closer to Afghanistan than other major Panjab rivers.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Teja Singh|author2=Sita Ram Kohli|title=Maharaja Ranjit Singh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YrG_aJTgnw0C |year=1986|publisher=Atlantic Publishers|pages=83–85}}</ref>

====Reforms====
[[File:RanjitSingh by ManuSaluja.jpg|thumb|2009 portrait of Ranjit Singh wearing the [[Koh-i-Noor|Koh-i-noor]] diamond as an armlet.]]
Ranjit Singh changed and improved the training and organisation of his army. He reorganised responsibility and set performance standards in logistical efficiency in troop deployment, [[Maneuver warfare|manoeuvre]], and [[marksmanship]].<ref name=Singh /> He reformed the staffing to emphasise steady fire over cavalry and guerrilla warfare, and improved the equipment and methods of war. The military system of Ranjit Singh combined the best of both old and new ideas. He strengthened the infantry and the artillery.<ref name=tejasingh65>{{cite book|author1=Teja Singh|author2=Sita Ram Kohli|title=Maharaja Ranjit Singh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YrG_aJTgnw0C |year=1986|publisher=Atlantic Publishers|pages=65–68}}</ref> He paid the members of the standing army from treasury, instead of the Mughal method of paying an army with local feudal levies.<ref name=tejasingh65/>

While Ranjit Singh introduced reforms in terms of training and equipment of his military, he failed to reform the old ''Jagirs'' (''Ijra'') system of Mughal middlemen.<ref name=sunitsingh64/><ref name="Brittlebank2008p65"/> The ''Jagirs'' system of state revenue collection involved certain individuals with political connections or inheritance promising a tribute (''nazarana'') to the ruler and thereby gaining administrative control over certain villages, with the right to force collect customs, excise and land tax at inconsistent and subjective rates from the peasants and merchants; they would keep a part of collected revenue and deliver the promised tribute value to the state.<ref name=sunitsingh64/><ref name="Grewal1998p115">{{cite book|author=J. S. Grewal|title=The Sikhs of the Punjab|url=https://archive.org/details/sikhsofpunjab0000grew |url-access=registration|year=1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-63764-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sikhsofpunjab0000grew/page/114 114]–119 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Harjot Oberoi|title=The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity, and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dKl84EYFkTsC |year=1994|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-61593-6 |pages=85–87 }}</ref> These ''Jagirs'' maintained independent armed militia to extort taxes from the peasants and merchants, and the militia was prone to violence.<ref name=sunitsingh64/> This system of inconsistent taxation with arbitrary extortion by militia, continued the Mughal tradition of ill treatment of peasants and merchants throughout the Sikh Empire, and is evidenced by the complaints filed to Ranjit Singh by East India Company officials attempting to trade within different parts of the Sikh Empire.<ref name=sunitsingh64/><ref name="Brittlebank2008p65"/>

According to historical records, Sunit Singh, Ranjit Singh's reforms focused on the military that would allow new conquests, but not towards the taxation system to end abuse, nor on introducing uniform laws in his state or improving internal trade and empowering the peasants and merchants.<ref name=sunitsingh64>{{cite book|author=Sunit Singh|editor=Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech|title=The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=7YwNAwAAQBAJ |year=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-100411-7 |pages=62–65 }}</ref><ref name="Brittlebank2008p65">{{cite book|author=Kate Brittlebank|title=Tall Tales and True: India, Historiography and British Imperial Imaginings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bnwMAQAAMAAJ |year=2008|publisher=Monash University Press|isbn=978-1-876924-61-4 |pages=65 }}</ref><ref name="Grewal1998p115"/> This failure to reform the ''Jagirs''-based taxation system and economy, in part led to a succession power struggle and a series of threats, internal divisions among Sikhs, major assassinations and coups in the Sikh Empire in the years immediately after the death of Ranjit Singh;<ref name="Low1991p263"/> an easy annexation of the remains of the Sikh Empire into British India followed, with the colonial officials offering the ''Jagirs'' better terms and the right to keep the system intact.<ref>{{cite book|author=Sunit Singh|editor=Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech|title=The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=7YwNAwAAQBAJ |year=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-100411-7 |pages=65–68 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Nicola Mooney|title=Rural Nostalgias and Transnational Dreams: Identity and Modernity Among Jat Sikhs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k1B2vdLBizIC |year=2011|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-9257-1 |pages=68–69 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Major|first1=Andrew J.|title=The Political Inheritance of Pakistan|editor=DA Low|publisher= Springer, Cambridge University Commonwealth Series| chapter=The Punjabi Chieftains and the Transition from Sikh to British Rule|year=1991| pages=53–85|doi=10.1007/978-1-349-11556-3_3|isbn= 978-1-349-11558-7}}</ref>

====Infrastructure investments====
[[File:Maharaja Ranjit singh's treasure.jpg|thumb|A [[lithography|lithograph]] by [[Emily Eden]] showing one of the favourite horses of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his collection of jewels, including the [[Koh-i-Noor]]]]Ranjit Singh ensured that Panjab manufactured and was self-sufficient in all weapons, equipment and munitions his army needed.<ref name="kaushikroyp143" /> His government invested in infrastructure in the 1800s and thereafter, established raw materials mines, cannon foundries, gunpowder and arms factories.<ref name="kaushikroyp143" /> Some of these operations were owned by the state, and others were operated by private Sikh operatives.<ref name="kaushikroyp143" />

However, Ranjit Singh did not make major investments in other infrastructure such as irrigation canals to improve the productivity of land and roads. The prosperity in his Empire, in contrast to the Mughal-Sikh wars era, largely came from the improvement in the security situation, reduction in violence, reopened trade routes and greater freedom to conduct commerce.<ref>{{cite book|author=Sunit Singh|editor=Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech|title=The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=7YwNAwAAQBAJ |year=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-100411-7 |pages=62–63 }}</ref>

===Muslim accounts===
The mid 19th-century Muslim historians, such as Shahamat Ali who experienced the Sikh Empire first hand, presented a different view on Ranjit Singh's Empire and governance.<ref name="bayly1996p233" /><ref>{{cite book|author=Chitralekha Zutshi|title=Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rEluAAAAMAAJ |year=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-521939-5 |pages=39–41 }}</ref> According to Ali, Ranjit Singh's government was despotic, and he was a mean monarch in contrast to the Mughals.<ref name="bayly1996p233">{{cite book|author=Christopher Alan Bayly|title=Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780–1870|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8bqEzPPp8xIC |year=1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-66360-1 |pages=233 }}</ref> The initial momentum for the Empire building in these accounts is stated to be Ranjit Singh led Khalsa army's "insatiable appetite for plunder", their desire for "fresh cities to pillage", and eliminating the Mughal era "revenue intercepting intermediaries between the peasant-cultivator and the treasury".<ref name="Low1991p263">{{cite book|author=Clive Dewey | editor=D. A. Low|title=Political Inheritance of Pakistan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VaeuCwAAQBAJ |year=1991|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-349-11556-3 |pages=263–265 }}</ref>

According to Ishtiaq Ahmed, Ranjit Singh's rule led to further persecution of Muslims in Kashmir, expanding{{clarify| reason=What does this word mean.| date=April 2021}} the previously selective persecution of Shia Muslims and Hindus by Afghan Sunni Muslim rulers between 1752 and 1819 before Kashmir became part of his Sikh Empire.<ref name="iahmed1998">{{cite book|author=Ishtiaq Ahmed|title=State, Nation and Ethnicity in Contemporary South Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=czSm7cmhgA0C&pg=PA140 |year=1998|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-85567-578-0 |pages=139–140}}</ref> Bikramjit Hasrat describes Ranjit Singh as a "benevolent despot".<ref>{{cite book|author=Bikramajit Hasrat|title=Life and Times of Ranjit Singh: A Saga of Benevolent Despotism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UPgdAAAAMAAJ|year=1977|oclc= 6303625 | publisher=V.V. Research Institute|pages=83, 198}}</ref>
The Muslim accounts of Ranjit Singh's rule were questioned by Sikh historians of the same era. For example, Ratan Singh Bhangu in 1841 wrote that these accounts were not accurate, and according to Anne Murphy, he remarked, "when would a Musalman praise the Sikhs?"<ref>{{cite book|author=Anne Murphy|title=The Materiality of the Past: History and Representation in Sikh Tradition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r13hjYfoI6MC |year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-991629-0 |pages=121–126 }}</ref> In contrast, the colonial era British military officer Hugh Pearse in 1898 criticised Ranjit Singh's rule, as one founded on "violence, treachery and blood".<ref name="Alexander Gardner">{{cite book|last=Gardner|first=Alexander|title=Memoirs of Alexander Gardner&nbsp;– Colonel of Artillery in the Service of Maharaja Ranjit Singh|year= 1898| chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/soldiertraveller00gardiala#page/210/mode/2up |publisher=William Blackwood & Sons| pages=211|chapter=Chapter XII}}</ref> Sohan Seetal disagrees with this account and states that Ranjit Singh had encouraged his army to respond with a "[[tit for tat]]" against the enemy, violence for violence, blood for blood, plunder for plunder.<ref>{{cite book|author=Sohan Singh Seetal|title=Rise of the Sikh Power and Maharaja Ranjeet Singh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TzRuAAAAMAAJ |year=1971|oclc=6917931| publisher=Dhanpat Rai|page=56}} (note: the original book has 667 pages; the open access version of the same book released by Lahore Publishers on archive.com has deleted about 500 pages of this book; see the original)</ref>

===Decline===
[[File:Fresco of Maharaja Ranjit Singh meeting with his potential heirs.gif|thumb|Fresco of Maharaja Ranjit Singh meeting with his potential heirs]]
Singh made his empire and the Sikhs a strong political force, for which he is deeply admired and revered in Sikhism. After his death, the empire failed to establish a lasting structure for Sikh government or stable succession, and the Sikh Empire began to decline. The British and Sikh Empire fought two [[Anglo-Sikh War (disambiguation)|Anglo-Sikh wars]] with the [[Second Anglo-Sikh War|second]] ending the reign of the Sikh Empire.<ref name="Oberoi1994p207">{{cite book|author=Harjot Oberoi|title=The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity, and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dKl84EYFkTsC |year=1994|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-61593-6 |pages=207–208 }}</ref> Sikhism itself did not decline.<ref name="Oberoi1994p208">{{cite book|author=Harjot Oberoi|title=The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity, and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dKl84EYFkTsC |year=1994|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-61593-6 |pages=208–216 }}</ref>

Clive Dewey has argued that the decline of the empire after Singh's death owes much to the [[jagir]]-based economic and taxation system which he inherited from the Mughals and retained. After his death, a fight to control the tax spoils emerged, leading to a power struggle among the nobles and his family from different wives. This struggle ended with a rapid series of palace coups and assassinations of his descendants, and eventually the annexation of the Sikh Empire by the British.<ref name="Low1991p263" />